Our greatest fears about Shell’s incompetence in the Arctic are starting to be realised.

The Kulluk – Shell’s creaking Arctic oil rig – was being towed back to harbour for maintenance when it was hit by a storm. The tow line broke and despite several attempts to reattach it the onboard crews failed and it eventually ran aground. Shell’s crew was rescued by the US Coast Guard.

The rig now sits abandoned perilously close to the rocky shoreline of Sitkalidak Island in Southern Alaska. This part of the coast is home to endangered species of sea lions, otters and over 250 bird species.

This proves – yet again – that the company is simply not prepared for the hazardous Arctic conditions where any spill could take years to clean up.

So far the more than 139,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board the Kulluk have not leaked into the fragile marine environment. The longer it remains near the cliffs the likelihood of a spill will increase.

But this is only the latest in Shell’s long list of Arctic failures. In the past year, it lost control of another one of its drill ships in a ‘stiff breeze’, crushed its safety equipment and had an on-board fire. The list goes on.

Shell cannot be trusted with the Arctic.

It’s essential that we get this news out to as many people as possible. Please forward this email to a friend who will join us in our bid to protect the Arctic.

Invite them to join us by signing here: http://www.savethearctic.org

We have a Greenpeace team on the way to Sitkalidak right now to monitor the situation closely and we’ll update you very soon.

Let’s stop Shell in 2013,

Fran

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